V Bookish

I received an advance reader copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review of the book.

Games of cat and mouse happen in royal courts all the time. But, what happens when the games are real, with the humans a the mice and the vampires as the cats. How far would you go to rescue your sister from these predators? How far would you go to save yourself?

Aylin’s sister, Yara, has been taken by the monsters they grew up hearing stories about. Aylin along with her friend, Ilyas must go on a journey to save Yara, he soft spoken relatively weaker of the two siblings. But, Yara has some surprises up her sleeves and manages to catch the attention of two powerful vampir brothers. Caught between the brothers and curt games will Yara survive until she can regain her freedom?

I went into this book expecting it to be a standalone novel, but was pleasantly surprised at the end to see that it is just the beginning of a longer story. I do love a good series. This book is similar to other books of the same genre that it kept my attention and was an easy read. The story line is also different enough that the story was compelling and not very predictable. It perfectly blends the evil vampire trope with the “not all vampires are monsters” trope.

With regard to the characters, let me begin with my least favorite of the two siblings. Aylin is annoying and too brash. The chapters told from her point of view were frustrating and dragged. There were a few times I put the book down when I got to Aylin’s point of view because I was just not interested in her story line. She is an admirable and courageous character when it comes to how much she cares for her sister. Did I mention that she was doing everything she had to do because she missed Yara? If not, then don’t worry because Aylin reminds you in every chapter that she’s in that she is trying to save her sister. Yara, on the other hand, was a very enjoyable character. She is strong in other ways than her sister, namely in her ability to play court games as well as the vampires that she is playing with. The Demeicies, Eldar and Volkan, are also well thought out characters. Eldar was more fleshed out than Volkan but, by the end of the book, I liked Volkan better than I liked Eldar.

The story told from Yara’s point of view was more entertaining than Aylin’s part of the story. To be fair, they could have left Aylin out of it altogether and the book would’ve been better; though it is possible she will become more important in the continuation of the series. Yara’s story has me on the edge of my sea. I enjoyed the court hierarchy and while no necessary for the story currently, I hope that we will learn more about the other first families in the next book.

With respect to the pace of the book, I found that Aylin’s chapters were very low and I found myself wanting to skip ahead to the action of Yara’s chapters and the vampir court. Due to starting with Aylin’s point of view the book seems like it’ll be slow but it steadily picked up pace and I could not put it down by the last 7 chapters.

This book really gave me conflicting feelings. At first, I was only going to give it a 3/5 stars rating but the ending caught me so off guard that I had to bump it up to a 4/5 star rating. I am really looking forward to the second book in the series. I would recommend this book to anyone that enjoys vampires, court games, and slow burn romances.